Four Cards in Twelve Months Without Hurting Your CIBIL

Card hackers love welcome bonuses. Just don’t nuke your bureau report along the way.

Signal: Spacing applications 90 days apart, keeping utilization <30%, and pre-paying statements helped our testers maintain 780+ scores despite 4 approvals.

Calendar

Month	Action
0	Apply Card #1 (cashback)
3	Apply Card #2 (travel) if score unchanged
6	Request CLI on both cards
9	Apply Card #3 (co-brand)
12	Apply Card #4 (premium) only if utilization + score stable

Rules

• Pull credit report before every application; note score trends.
• Freeze discretionary spend if utilization creeps above 35%.
• Use autopay + reminders to avoid even a single late mark.

Application Log Template

Card	Applied on	Score at time	Limit approved	Bureau inquiry ref	Notes
SBI Cashback	5 Jan	762	₹2.5L	CIBIL#12345	Instant approval
Axis Atlas-credit-card/)-credit-card/)-credit-card/)	7 Apr	758	₹4L	CIBIL#12789	Needed salary slips

Populate this table as you go—handy if you need to dispute duplicate inquiries.

Recovery Protocol

• Score dips >20 points: Pause new applications for 6 months, aggressively prepay balances, and request bureaus to update once utilization normalizes.
• Application rejected: Wait 90 days, ask issuer for reason, fix documentation gaps (salary proof, address).
• Too many inquiries: Consider applying to banks with whom you have salary/current accounts—they may soft-pull instead.

Next Steps

1. Document each application: date, bureau hit, outcome.
2. Share the plan with accountability buddies—peer pressure works.
3. Reevaluate after 12 months; sometimes three cards is plenty.